The governments of the United States and Vietnam have completed their separate investigations into the $1.2 million, which was illegally wire-transferred from one of the ASG accounts at Bank of Hawai’i nearly three years ago, and it has been confirmed that Vietnam did not perpetrate the illegal act.

Out-going Congressman Faleomavaega Eni, who has been working with federal and Vietnamese officials on the matter following a request by the former Togiola Administration more than two years ago, says this is the result of both investigations.

In August, 2011, ASG discovered the illegal wire transfer of funds to an unknown account at the Vietnam International Bank (VIB), where the money has remained frozen while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and security officials in Vietnam launched their own investigations into the matter.

Faleomavaega informed Governor Lolo M. Moliga in May this year that the Vietnamese government, through their Office of Public Security in cooperation with the FBI, “has verified that the person or persons responsible for the fraudulent wire transfer were not Vietnamese or based in Vietnam.”

Responding to Samoa News questions for an update on this case, Faleomavaega said the Vietnamese government has informed his office that the $1.2 million will be returned “very soon” to ASG, with all investigations — both by the FBI and the government of Vietnam — now complete.

“All proper channels have been cleared for the release of the funds, since this was a money laundering case, a hacker who is not in Vietnam, but from another country,” Faleomavaega said over the weekend, via mail through his Washington D.C. staff.

Faleomavaega’s staff met in summer of this year in Hanoi with Vietnamese government officials and then a few months ago met with the FBI to verify and get an update on the investigations by both sides, whose officials revealed that the investigations are now completed.

The congressman says the FBI confirmed to his office what the Vietnamese government had relayed to this staff, that “this was a hacker that the government of Vietnam had nothing to do with and that the hacker was from another country.”

He said, “We know the country but we don’t want to disclose the country, because we don’t want a hacker's activity to reflect negatively on the people of any country."

Faleomavaega noted, “What’s important is that the hacking didn’t come from Vietnam, which did nothing wrong.”

He added, “We know it has taken long to resolve this issue but that is what happens with money laundering cases, it takes time, and the money will be released very soon by the Vietnamese government."

Early this year, the Vietnamese government sent a request to Faleomavaega’s Office for American Samoa to provide an original and notarized letter on ASG letterhead that the territorial government does in fact own this $1.2 million.

However, Faleomavaega informed the governor in a May 2014 letter that the document ASG sent was a “copy”, not an original, and the notary on the document was not current. Faleomavaega then requested that the Attorney General’s Office provide a proper original letter with a current notary, which could then be forwarded to Vietnam’s Office of Public Security for final processing.

Faleomavaega and the governor also discussed this issue when they met, and Lolo assured the Congressman that the AG’s Office would provide the right information. In the interim, Vietnam was working on returning the funds while working with the FBI on other matters to be cleared.

The Congressman said over the weekend that the local AG’s Office has already submitted the official and properly notarized original letter, which was then forwarded to Vietnam.

Faleomavaega thanked the government of Vietnam for its investigation and support, and for informing him that the funds will be returned to ASG very soon. He also thanked the FBI and other federal agencies for their assistance, as well as the governor for his leadership and support through this process.

It's unclear at this point as to when the money will be returned to ASG. The $1.2 million was part of federal grant money, and last month, Lolo asked the Interior Department for support in returning this money back to ASG. Two senior officials of the local Treasury Department have been in contact with the FBI on this case.